Another Expert To Tell Us What We Already Know:

Jamaica’s National Security Minister has just announced that the coun­try has secured the ser­vices of a con­sul­tant to help stem the flow of weapons into the island. The con­sul­tant , a woman, will also be required to devel­op a nation­al pol­i­cy to stem the flow of small arms into the island — the preva­lence of which has been blamed for the coun­try’s year-to-year high mur­der rate. The con­sul­tant, a woman whose iden­ti­ty has not been dis­closed, began her six-month con­tract on June 9 and will also look at leg­is­la­tion on explo­sives and all firearms.

The Security Minister revealed that the indi­vid­ual has worked with a num­ber of inter­na­tion­al bod­ies. She is from an enti­ty, the Small Arms Survey, a grad­u­ate insti­tute based in Geneva, Switzerland… and has also worked with the UN dis­ar­ma­ment unit,” he said. “The objec­tive is to ensure a lev­el of con­trol with­in the soci­ety so that we can elim­i­nate, as far as pos­si­ble, crime and vio­lence relat­ed to gun use; and at the same time, those con­trol mea­sures will also include the ques­tion of [deal­ing with] impor­ta­tion, expor­ta­tion, trans­ship­ment,” he explained. Also list­ed as part of the consultant’s respon­si­bil­i­ties, the assess­ment of secu­ri­ty oper­a­tions at the island’s ports in keep­ing with inter­na­tion­al stan­dards, stock man­age­ment with­in law enforce­ment agen­cies, and a review of the Firearms and Gunpowder Acts​.Read more: http://​www​.jamaicaob​serv​er​.com/​n​e​w​s​/​G​u​n​-​c​o​n​t​r​o​l​-​I​n​t​l​-​c​o​n​s​u​l​t​a​n​t​-​h​i​r​e​d​-​t​o​-​h​e​l​p​-​s​t​e​m​-​f​l​o​w​-​o​f​-​w​e​a​p​o​n​s​-​t​o​-​J​a​m​a​i​c​a​_​9​4​0​9​9​4​1​#​i​x​z​z​1​U​d​a​F​Y​fpg

I don’t want to be known as a cyn­ic, but I am just a lit­tle miffed at the rea­sons why the con­sul­tan­t’s name , and the amount of monies being paid out to her is a secret. Are the funds being doled out part of a grant , or loan, by a for­eign enti­ty that requires secre­cy ? If so the Jamaican peo­ple still have a right to know , at least that she is being paid by said entity.

Again , let me remind the Administration , in a Democracy you Govern by con­sent, in a Monarchy you gov­ern by decree, if as we claim ‚that we have a democ­ra­cy, then the boss­es of the Government, the peo­ple have a right to know what actions are being tak­en in their name.

If there are cir­cum­stances that makes those rights imprac­ti­cal, then the Government should clas­si­fy that infor­ma­tion . That we undertand.

I wel­come any help that the gov­ern­ment can source that will effec­tive­ly impact the flow of guns into the coun­try, and by exten­sion reduce the lev­el of rabid crim­i­nal­i­ty that is now the norm in Jamaica. 

However at the same time we com­mend this as a step in the right direc­tion , the Jamaican peo­ple must demand account­abil­i­ty for monies spent. Over the last sev­er­al years we have seen a pletho­ra of con­sul­tants and so called experts brought in ‚alleged­ly with a view to reshape and refo­cus our Justice sys­tem and police services.

The jury is still out on the rate of returns, if any,the peo­ple have got­ten on their investment.

Because the Country is awash in ille­gal weapons, it does seem like a good move to have some­thing done about it , what I am not sure about, is whether it required a six year con­tract to come up with a work­able strat­e­gy? What are the terms of her con­tract? what if there are no vis­i­ble improve­ments in the sys­tem after a peri­od of time? Will the Jamaican peo­ple be stuck with a poten­tial­ly high priced import ‚who is deliv­er­ing noth­ing for their scarce tax dol­lars. Will a future Government of the Opposition par­ty be bound by a con­tract they did not award?

This brings us to the com­pe­tence of our own Security proffesionals.Are we to believe that the nation’s mil­i­tary intel­li­gence unit, and the much vaunt­ed more edu­cat­ed cadre of Police Officers, can­not fig­ure out a way to stem the flow of guns com­ing into Jamaica? We are well aware of the jagged nature of Jamaica’s coast­line, we are aware of the lev­el of resources avail­able to the coast guard and marine police , we get all of that. What we do not under­stand is how come those enti­ties can­not inter­cept any of the weapons com­ing in?

To my mind there is no need for any­one to deve­l­ope a pol­i­cy to stem the flow of guns into Jamaica . Minister Nelson allud­ed to the fact that most of the ille­gal guns stream­ing into the Island are com­ing from the United States. They have nailed down the state of Florida and has even fine-tuned this intel­li­gence to three coun­ties in that state.

Save the Jamaican peo­ple their tax dol­lars and lean on the General sit­ting there with you Minister Nelson, get the Americans with their in-finite resources to stop the guns flow­ing into Jamaica , case closed.

Why do you need a high priced , high­ly rec­om­mend­ed so-called expert to tell you what you already know?

Mike beck­les:

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